During the initialization of an integrated circuit and in certain states during the operation of this integrated circuit, it is necessary, from time to time, to bring this integrated circuit into a defined state. In digital technology, this defined state of a digital module is brought to a low logic level by means of resetting (RESET or CLEAR) or is also brought to a high logic level, for example, by means of setting (SET). In general, an integrated circuit and the relevant modules of the integrated circuit are brought to a defined level by means of resetting—referred to below as RESET.
For such resetting, the integrated circuit typically has a RESET terminal, which is provided specifically for this purpose and to which the RESET signal is applied. The RESET signals which carry the information for the individual RESET conditions are routed, via connecting lines, to the respective circuit parts—which are to be reset by means of the RESET—of the integrated circuit.
This requires a plurality of RESET connecting lines which are respectively intended to bring the RESET and the corresponding RESET information to the various circuit parts. Whereas connecting lines required specifically for the various RESET signals can still be implemented effectively in simple integrated circuits, this uses a very large amount of space in large scale integrated circuits such as modern DRAM memory modules. In this case, the connecting lines for the RESET signals must be routed to all of the semiconductor modules such as, for example, row decoders, column decoders, input buffers, output buffers, drivers, modulators, demodulators etc. Taking into account the relevant design rules, the provision of the corresponding RESET lines thus uses an extremely large amount of chip area and is thus cost-intensive. However, one requirement when developing and providing large scale integrated circuits is always to provide the integrated circuit in such a manner that, as far as possible, it uses a small amount of area whilst the functionality remains the same.